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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

LG confirms production of 'bendable and unbreakable' smartphone displays

It's been a long time coming, but LG's foray into elastic smartphone
displays is finally going mainstream. The company has confirmed that it
will begin mass-producing a new lightweight 6-inch panel that, it
claims, is the world's first flexible OLED panel for smartphones. The
display is built from plastic substrates that give it bendable
properties, allowing it to be fixed inside devices with curved (but
likely rigid) designs. Reports suggest LG could include its first
flexible screen inside the G Flex,
a new 6-inch smartphone set to be announced next month, but the company
points to new products with "enhanced performance and differentiated
designs" coming next year. Something tells us LG may move quickly to
announce its first such product, with Samsung strongly tipped to unveil its own exotically-shaped
smartphone next month. It's probable that both devices will be
artistically bent to achieve their form, so we'll probably have to wait a
little longer for something that actually bends into our jean pockets.

Press Release

LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies,
today announced that it will start mass-production of the world's first
flexible OLED panel for smartphones. This state-of-the-art panel
represents another milestone following the company's commercial rollout
of the world's first 55-inch OLED TV display earlier this year.

"LG Display is launching a new era of flexible displays for
smartphones with its industry-leading technology," said Dr. Sang Deog
Yeo, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of LG
Display. "The flexible display market is expected to grow quickly as
this technology is expected to expand further into diverse applications
including automotive displays, tablets and wearable devices. Our goal is
to take an early lead in the flexible display market by introducing new
products with enhanced performance and differentiated designs next
year."

LG Display's flexible OLED panel is built on plastic substrates
instead of glass. By applying film-type encapsulation technology and
attaching the protection film to the back of the panel, LG Display made
the panel bendable and unbreakable. The new display is vertically
concave from top to bottom with a radius of 700mm, opening up a world of
design innovations in the smartphone market. And only 0.44mm thin, LG
Display's flexible OLED panel is the world's slimmest among existing
mobile device panels. What's more, it is also the world's lightest,
weighing a mere 7.2g even with a 6-inch screen, the largest among
current smartphone OLED displays.

In March 2012 LG Display developed the world's first 6-inch
Electronic Paper Display (EPD) based on e-ink which utilizes a plastic
backplane. Having previously showcased the world's first curved 55-inch
OLED TV panel at CES 2013, today's announcement highlights the company's
leading position in advanced flexible display technologies.

According to research firm IHS Display Bank, the global flexible
display industry will see dramatic growth and become a USD 1.5 billion
market by 2016, exceeding USD 10 billion by 2019. LG Display plans to
advance flexible display technologies and bring innovation to consumers'
daily lives with the introduction of rollable and foldable displays in
various sizes.